Where is that "Like" button?

What day did the first F2F happen? We could celebrate We Aren't Axe Murderers Day.

My pictures are dated May 17, 2002. Sounds about right.

September 17 is when we first started posting on the Phoenix Board.

(This year it's Rosh Hashana, or I would've offered here and now to host a Zoom during it)

The first F2F was May 17.

[Edit: x-posted with Laura. Of course.]

I am glad you didn't give up on us prickly weird territorial defensive twerps, which many of us were during that period of time. Total virtual village NIMBYs, some of us, as I call myself out.

I am so glad, too, Plei. Glad and grateful.

It is remarkable, how the community has evolved through all the laughs, celebrations, losses, evolutions and aspirations. Our lives are so rich together.

Even though I couldn't be here, reading now I'm overcome in the most wonderful way by the love and community among us. I was here in spirit. As beekaytee says, this is home. It's always been my first home on the internet, and will remain so. Losing the best of us is just a microcosm of the world, and continuing is honoring and forging ahead just like real life. I love you all. I love you Jacqueline, David, Matilda, Emmett, and the rest of the family.

Much love to you, Beverly.

I’m here, mostly lurking right now. I wish I could have made the call but time zones weren’t kind to me today. It’s been a hard year for so many of us and I selfishly wish that JZ was doing the comforting instead of the one being comforted. She is the best of us even at the worst of times.

David, thank you for sharing this precious time with us. It’s a gift. Sending all of you love and light.

This will always be my home. So many of you have opened your homes and lives to me that the only word for you is “family.”

Today was a wonderful gathering of all of our love, and I'm of course also reminded of a similar gathering we had with amyth. I don't think our culture has a convenient word for these gatherings (yet?) but this has become one of my most precious rituals. All the outpouring of love and memory and grief-mixed-with-sweetness and so, so much support in all directions that's always the best part of a really solid funeral (no offense to the priests and rabbis and prescribed words and whatnot) -- but while the person is there to witness and receive it.

amych, I have long bemoaned the lack of conscious connection and grieving in this culture. Gatherings like ours really are precious rituals, ones that make us healthier, more aware humans.

I have other significant 'tribes', but none so wise and wonderful as Buffistas.

Here is the poem I wrote today.

For House Zmayhem.

We need
Flowers, fruit and seed.

We need
The turning of seasons.

All this is guaranteed
To Earth but not to us.

We crave the weight
Of Sacred fellowship,
The anchor of mind holding mind,
Of soul holding hard to soul.

So then we see
Beloveds' bonds as gravity.

Joy and love carry
Us along as cosmic dust rings
Around their planet's turning.

Meteor bursts the atmosphere
Pulling apart star stuff.

Each moment now is holy pollen
Seeding new cores, new galaxies.

Love's constant elements
Reform to hold new heavy Earths,
New seasons, flowers, fruit,
New weight effulgent.

I don't think our culture has a convenient word for these gatherings (yet?) but this has become one of my most precious rituals. All the outpouring of love and memory and grief-mixed-with-sweetness and so, so much support in all directions that's always the best part of a really solid funeral (no offense to the priests and rabbis and prescribed words and whatnot) -- but while the person is there to witness and receive it.

I'd say "more of this" but of course I don't want more of y'all dying -- I just want more of this absolutely blessed knowledge that -- for once -- we've had a moment to express all that love, fully cognizant of the context that we're in, and drawn by the need to be there for and with each other.

That's a really lovely way to put it. Very grateful to be a part of this community, and immensely grateful David was willing to share this time with us. Also mostly a lurker these days, but sending love to everyone. (It's not really a post until I edit it...)